I have read the manga quite a few years ago and was curious to see its movie adaptation. I remember quite enjoying it at the time despite some flaws in its writing. Unfortunately, I found myself disappointed by the film.

Story-wise, it is a quite loose adaptation -which make sense as a 14 volumes manga cannot be encompassed fully by a less than 2 hours movie. However, despite the shortcuts taken by the script, I still found the plot rather confusing as if the writer was trying to put too much into it. They try to make it sensible but I found it difficult to follow and it was also a bit all over the place in its pacing.

Acting-wise, I like a lot Tsuchiya Tao but I would not say that I found her role when playing "a genius actress" totally believable. The part was clearly not easy and she did an honourable job (as well as the other female lead Yoshine Kyoko), but still something did not click for me in the performance. The acting got definitely better in the last third of the movie with a pretty compelling last narrative arc allowing the actresses to be more intense.

Production-wise, I liked a lot some of the decors around the theatre plays. I also truly enjoyed the set up and making of the dramatic scenes. I am much less convinced with how the main "fantastical" element was portrayed with the lipstick and its implication. I found also the "ugliness" of Kasane and her outside appearance totally downplayed. I had already some nit-picking regarding that specific point with the manga, and the movie made it even far less convincing...

I would not necessarily recommend this to people unless you really like one of the main actresses or if you enjoyed the manga and are curious to see its adaptation.